Keep Your Powder Dry

Regular readers (hello both of you) will remember my original TBM post a few weeks ago. Impressed with my sample building (and how it blended well with my Hovels offerings), I took the plunge and ordered a couple more. Again from the 15mm Big Battalions range (correctly scaled height, reduced footprint) I went for 'three story buildings' (15BPBB07U) and 'warehouse' (15BPBB17U). My parcel arrived quickly and was packaged securely. The buildings were very clean and needed no cleaning up. I gave them a very good scrub to remove mould release agent. With some of my dragoons for size reference The three storey buildings is very neat, thankfully this isn't the Architectural Journal magazine so I can't nitpick about rendered stone in the seventeenth century (stone was an expensive building material so generally wasn't rendered, it was shown off). The warehouse, again, a neat and simple design. If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the

Hex is a micro budget British film set during the Civil Wars. Be careful looking for it as there are a number of films that share the same title. Not heard of it? No neither had I. This film is currently included with Amazon Prime in the UK, but is listed as Hex (2019). Hex (2018) is a completely different film altogether, with a much higher body count. Two soldiers (a Royalist and a Parliamentarian) meet after a skirmish and their conflict leads them into the woods. Only the woods are... well that would be telling. Think A Field of England but with an even smaller budget and in colour. The film looks at seventeenth century superstitions and witchcraft in particular; using cinematography, music and good writing to set the scene. The film is beautifully shot. The Sealed Knot provided props for the camp scenes, and no doubt one or two dead extras. Locations in and around Staffordshire and the Derbyshire border - Lud's Church looking splendid, and as atmospheric as ever

If you are new to the blog, or new to painting ECW figures - welcome. Now go and read what colours to use  first, as this entry will make much more sense if you read this second. Caveat: I paint true 15mm figures and apply a heavy wash of Citadel Nuln Oil. These colours work in this setting, with the heavy black wash subduing the colour a bit. If you are starting painting out different sized figures you might need to go brighter or slightly darker depending upon size of your figures. A number of people have asked me what colour paints I use for certain regiments or a particular item. So here is my attempt at converting the colour chart found in part one  into a brand and colour of paint. I must confess that I am a fan of  Foundry and  Coat d'Arms  (Cd'A) paints, so mostly I have identified their paint colours. If you are a fan of other brands there are a number of paint comparison charts available on the web, one of the best is Dakka Dakka . Other colours I use (th

Regular readers (hello both of you) will know that I am always on the look out for resin buildings that will work with the Hovels buildings I had a look at Total Battle Miniatures' (henceforth TBM) ranges. Why resin? My own house is almost 200 years old, nothing is straight, nothing is true. Whilst laser cut mdf buildings can look good, they are a bit too crisp, neat and square for the seventeenth century. Hence resin. Sagging roof lines, wonky windows are all better represented in resin. I already own a few of their Big Battalions Napoleonic buildings (Essling Granary etc), so I hoped they would work size wise. TBM make two ranges - Skirmish which are accurately scaled, and Big Battalions which are the correct height but have a reduced footprint. My test piece is from the Big Battalions 15mm Black Powder Europe section: 15BPBB12U 'Row of Houses' A clean, crisp hollow resin model which required no cleaning up. I thought I'd washed all the mould release a

James Progers's Regiment of Foot was a Welsh regiment armed with firelocks. They fought at Montgomery Castle and Monmouth in 1644, and were besieged at Abergavenny in 1646. Other than that we know the names of some officers but precious little else. There is some confusion which of the Proger/Progers/Prodger family was the Colonel of the Regiment. There is an article on the Dictionary of Welsh Biography  website which describes the two branches of the family. It mentions Colonel Charles Proger ‘of the Guards’, who had to redeem his estate at £330 for siding with the King in the Civil Wars, and was probably the ‘Col. Progers’ who took part in recapturing Monmouth for the King in 1644 (J. R. Phillips, Civil War in Wales). Sir Henry Proger appears to have been the ‘Lieut. Progers’ who was in Raglan Castle when Fairfax took it in 1646. The article mentions a James Proger who spent time in Spain and was last heard of as constable of Abergavenny Castle in 1665. They al